Last week, a viral video lead towards the final push the French government needed to completely outlaw catcalling and street harassment. The woman in the video, Marie Laguerre, is shown walking down a sidewalk near a restaurant, when a man appears to catcall her. She turns to reply and continues walking away, when he approaches her, tossing an ashtray from a nearby table towards her, and then hitting her across the face.
In a later interview, Laguerre says that it wasn’t the first time she had been harassed on the street. She got angry this time and responded “shut up,” thinking he wouldn’t hear her. But he did, and his reaction quickly turned violent.
Since then, French lawmakers have banned sexual harassment in the street, rendering catcalling and/or degrading comments a crime punishable by on-the-spot fines of up to $870. France passed the legislation on the first of August as part of a larger set of laws targeting sexual violence.
The law will take effect starting next month. As the news spread, many American activists have called for similar reform in the United States. The law validates the struggle that many women go through on a daily basis while just simply walking down a street, and proves that their government is committed to standing beside them and doing what it can to make everyone feel safe. By enforcing a concrete punishment, cat-callers and street-harassers will no longer get away with their degrading comments, and will have consequences for their actions.
